Eco-friendly friendly housing has long been a flashpoint in the culture wars—just recall Ronald Reagan removing the solar panels from Jimmy Carter's White House. And in the country’s ongoing transition to sustainability that is constrained by definition to gradual change, it’s rare to witness a true breakthrough. Yet a breakthrough seems to be precisely what Passive Housing offers: a German-developed technique of super-insulated design that keeps homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter for a fraction of the cost. Through a combination of climate, policy and politics, Portland, Oregon has found itself leading the country in the Passive Housing movement—still a niche market, to be sure, but one that that’s growing rapidly, as Sara Solovitch reports. POLITICO Magazine sent photographer Mark Peterson to Portland, Oregon, and surrounding suburbs, like Hillsboro, to capture neighborhoods at the forefront of an environmental revolution.
Above, four Passive Housing units in the suburbs of Portland.
Text by Jesse Rifkin.

Mark Peterson / Redux Pictures for POLITICO Magazine

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Lisa Whitridge works in her Passive House outside of Portland. Passivhaus, a building method developed in Germany in the early 1990’s, relies on truly airtight insulation—the roof, walls and floors—to create a building that consumes 80 percent less energy than a standard home.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Lisa Whitridge’s Passive House outside Portland includes an internal composting system that processes in-home refuse. Triple-layered window panes, seen bottom left, are a signature of Passivhaus design.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Doctor Ole Ersson in the community garden in front of a Passive House apartment complex. Houses and other buildings account for 40 percent of national energy consumption and a third of carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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A Passive House apartment complex, and community garden. The air exchange apparatus is visible in the upper left.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Georgye Hamlin at her passive apartment in The Orchards apartment complex in Hillsboro, Oregon. The lobby features a prominent five-foot TV screen with a readout that monitors each apartment’s energy consumption.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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The Orchards apartment complex. The Portland area is leading a revival in Passive Housing, with construction and retrofitting to Passive standards in Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Tad Everhart, a former prosecuting attorney, with his family in the kitchen of their Portland area home, which they retrofitted five years ago to Passive standards. “I didn’t think about climate change until we had a child,” he says.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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The Everhart’s home has extensive insulation in the attic and three-paned door. “When I found it, it was like a religious experience,” says Everhart.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Amanda Caffall and Garrett Downen in their Passive House. Until the prices for insulating materials falls, Passive Houses typically cost more than an average design. Some estimates range from six to 15 percent.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Amanda Caffall’s and Garrett Downen’s Passive House includes an energy efficient water heater, which uses the hot air from their garage to heat the water supply.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Lavinia Gordon in her Ankeny Row apartment. “We wanted to create a place to live that was walkable and hikeable,” she says. “That’s why were so attracted to passive house.”

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Lavinia Gordon's Ankeny Row apartment, featuring the traditional three-paned windows and a bicycle room at the complex. Portland has more Passive Houses than anywhere else in the country – 100, according to one count – and more certified consultants as well.

Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine

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Michelle Jeresek, an architect and the incoming president of Passive House Northwest. The trend is spreading coast to coast. Last September, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio released a 35-year plan, One City: Built To Last, for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the city’s buildings.